Peter Brette rides Asset Manager
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Peter Brette rides Asset Manager |
Former Henry Cecil aide Rudkin captured the feature race of the day with Great Lion, a five-year-old bay who last won a race in March '98. But Rudkin has managed to keep the fire burning in his ward, who showed great heart to hold off Sunbeam Dance in a tight two-horse finish.
Great Lion, has been a consistent performer for Rudkin, closing the 1998-99 season with back to back second places behind Cellini and Get Away With It. Making his first appearance in this his fourth season, the son of Sheikh Albadou galloped strongly under in-form rider Neil Pollard to win the mile and a quarter handicap by half a length.
Great Lion's win maintained Rudkin's flying start for the season, giving him his fourth win in only three meetings.
Also finding early season form were Brette and Mather, who pulled off two smart wins with Capital Prince in a maidens race, and Asset manager in a handicap.
While Asset Manager gave Brette a compelling win over would be winner Iceland, the mount of two time champion jockey Willie Supple, Capital Prince had to dig deep to stave off the Pollard-ridden Tell Them All.
Asset Manager was a very impressive winner, producing a blinding run from well off the pace set by Calchas (Ted Durcan), Sant Malo (Eddie Ahern) and Iceband, to win as he liked. More will be heard of this four-year-old son of Night Shift in the months to come.
Capital Prince, whose best finishing in three career starts last season was a second to Serdaal at Jebel Ali, looked refreshed and happy both in the parade ring and on the track, battling readily for Brette when the crunch came.
Winning readily as well was the French bred Arabian Teajibini, who won his third race in a row, having prevailed in both his last two starts earlier this year at Nad Al Sheba and Abu Dhabi.
Hameed Abbas scored an emphatic victory for Sharjah Equestrian Club's Musabah Al Muhairi in the day's concluding race, rallying strongly atop Aswaat to pip Carlos Arias and Sparkling Edge at the wire.
Abbas rode out his mount aggressively, and despite the saddle slipping towards the last part of the race, did extremely well to maintain a balance and run out a deserving winner.